Cheshire

All posts tagged Cheshire

We were all well-rested the next morning after a good, quiet night’s sleep. Alone. In our own house.

Hetal was up first to feed Erin.

Then I got to work upgrading our appliances to keep them from breaking. With this many teenagers, you have to expect everything to be broken all the time if you don’t take precautions.

I got a little too involved in my work.

Branden and Christof are so picky about their food these days. On the positive side, they’re always making delicious salads for us to eat. Even if it’s annoying, I think we all eat healthier with both of them bugging us.

Caitlin and Christof are still joined at the hip. Or the shoulder. Or something. It’s so cute to see them together.

We’re just a big old happy family!

All the older kids just love Erin.

She is going to be so spoiled when she’s older.

Isn’t she cute?

Today was a Sunday. We were all moved in, which didn’t take much because we had to sell almost all our stuff to get into this house. Work and school didn’t start until Monday. There wasn’t even a holiday festival in town. What were we going to do with our day?



I decided to take the bull by the horns. We were all going to spend some time outside for a while! The fresh air would do us good.

I gathered the whole family together and took us to the playground. The teens protested that they were too old, but I put my foot down. They could find something to do there, and they would like it. Or else.

We took the cab for about two blocks to the elixer shop.

Then loaded up into the local LLAMA to get most of the rest of the way there.

LLAMA: The only way to travel! At least in this town.

Deanne couldn’t cram herself in, but she got in after we were done.

The teens got more cheerful once we arrived.

Branden shot hoops with Hetal.

He had a lot to learn.

Then this waif of a girl showed up and joined us with her toddler.

I swear, she should eat more! You could see right through her!

Deanne played pretend, pretty much the same way she always does when she’s at home, but at least she was outside doing it.

Christof and Caitlin threw the frisbee around.

Hetal and I played on the swings. Whee!

And when a toddler started screaming, it wasn’t Erin.

Erin was playing with her doll like an angel. It’s so nice when the screaming kid isn’t yours once in a while.

Branden was the first one to head home. He was anxious about his grades and wanted to get a good start on the school week.

After a while, the rest of us decided we’d had enough fun, and also the playground didn’t have much in the way of lights.

Christof fed the kitties and then tried to show them what to do about it!

Branden was more direct.

Then Christof and Branden decided to play frisbee in the back yard while Deanne headed to bed.

Branden tries hard. You have to give him that.

Hetal and I settled down to a late dinner. Suddenly, Hetal said, “Do you get the feeling we forgot a couple of kids?”

Ulp.

Where was Erin??

Fortunately, Caitlyn, who we’d also forgotten, took care of the littlest Wonderland.

We have such a responsible family!

All’s well that ends well. Could somebody get that kid a bottle?

———-

I have now played all the way to Branden’s birthday. I can’t wait to know who the heir is going to be, so I’m going to try to power through the final posts as fast as I can manage. The kids head off to school in the next post, so maybe I can manage more then one day in the next post :).

In today’s episode of the So-Crazy-They’re-Reponsible Wonderlands, Hetal got up early to feed Erin.

Just don’t look at what Cheshire is doing in the kitchen. If we don’t look, we can pretend it didn’t happen.

Then Branden played with Erin.

And even changed her diaper!

Christof cleaned

Hetal cooked breakfast.

Branden did the dishes

The kitties loved on each other.

And Deanne couldn’t go outside because the door was in the way.

Whew! I was worried there! Now things are getting back to normal.

Actually, this was far more than a normal day because we were finally GETTING OUT OF THAT CONDO. Yes, indeed, I had to persuade Hetal to sell her car to do it, but we are getting a house of our very own.

I desperately hope this will stop all the strangers from running into our living room. One can only hope.

Of course, we can’t afford to furnish it yet, but that hardly matters.

Once we were all getting settled in the new place, I took some time away from the family to go to another award ceremony.

Where they yet again gave me a useless trophy instead of money. I can’t even sell these things.

Couldn’t they give me a trophy shaped like a chair or something?

While I was gone, everyone was mesmerized by Erin playing with her new doll.

She named him Bungle. I really don’t want to know.

Branden was really impressed that we could at least afford a toilet.

Caitlin posed in front of the mirror.

I got home in time for the real celebration!

My twins were growing up!

Christof was pretty impressed with his new look.

Then he got into an argument with his reflection, and I knew that he was finally one of us.

While the rest of the family was getting cake.

I answered the doorbell. I real, working doorbell, can you imagine?

At the door was a furry who claimed to be working for the local university.

She brought some free stuff I can probably sell at the pawn shop.

I invited her in to join the party. I mean, I have nothing against furries. Some of my best friends are furries. Really.

Besides, this one was strangely, well, hot.

Hetal noticed the way I was looking at our guest immediately, so I had to convince her I only had eyes for her.

Caitlyn told us to go to our room.

Christof did his homework again. He’s so studious all of a sudden! Of course, he hasn’t actually been to high school yet, so that might have been his elementary homework.

I played some soccer with Branden.

Caitlyn got into an argument with the refrigerator.

I think she won.

The llama danced in the living room.

Branden took a new interest in personal hygiene.

Which didn’t include actually making it to the toilet to pee.

Christof cleaned the litter box.

Deanne bonded with the llama.

Then it got dark, and I realized we hadn’t actually bought any lights for this house yet.

Hetal took the opportunity to scare the stuffing out of Caitlyn.

I guess that’s an evil witch for you.

The teens loved on their baby sister.

Deanne flew her dragon across the room.

I finally kicked out the llama.

And everyone went to bed. Now the girls have a room!

And the boys have a room!

And the baby has a corner in the upstairs hallway.

Close enough, right?

Also, Hetal and I have a room. With a new bed. Which needed to be well-tested.

After which Caitlyn walked in to tell us to keep down the noise!

Well, I never!

———-

Self-Peeing: 7 + 1 = 8.

Branden blows the winning streak. Go Branden!

These posts are getting long. All these idiots are being very entertaining, and there are so MANY of them.

So, I finally decided enough was enough with the town home. This is a house that I pulled out of the EA residential bin. I really like downloading custom homes, but with the string of glitches I’ve been seeing, I decided to keep it simple stupid.

It’s interesting to see how those killer eyebrows change at the characters grow up. Caitlyn’s are now not so pointy. You can tell I spent a lot of time playing around with her look.

Also, he hasn’t done anything to demonstrate it, but Christof’s sudden attack of studiousness and my strategic use of the “Work Hard” school tone actually got him an A in elementary school. (But not honor roll, so no points :-p.) That shocked me because it was so rapid. He had a straight C until a couple of days before aging up, then suddenly started both doing his homework and going to bed so that his mood was actually high enough to Work Hard for some part of the school day. At any rate, he actually got his Insane trait this time around, and I have a full set.  I’m starting to think that there should be points for the Insane thing — either losing points if a kid makes it to adulthood without Insane or gaining them if the whole generation gets the trait.

That said, it looks like I’m going to get to choose Erin’s next trait, and she’s already Insane, so any suggestions on what I should give her?

Miscellaneous notes on game fail:
That bit with Deanne being stuck in the house turned out to be significant. When I moved houses, the only person who was able to get to the new house was Branden, who happened to be standing in the back yard when I triggered the move. Everyone else was stuck in the house. After several tries to get them out, I finally just used MasterController Reset Everything, which placed them in their actual house after reset. My leading theory is that the unused newspaper collection combined with the university goodie basket closed off routing from the front door (if so, good going EA :-p). But there’s a BACK DOOR that should’ve been perfectly routable. So your guess is as good as mine. Let’s hope for less bizarre routing for a while.

Also, I discovered that my amazing disaster from my previous move was 100% my fault. I used MoveObjects in build/buy mode to move several sims because I read someplace that you could. When you’re trying to remodel a house containing 7 sims and 6 pets, it gets to be nearly impossible to get a room clear to work on. However, DO NOT DO THIS. It seems to permanently unstick the sim from their vertical location. The game perpetually thinks they’re between floors, creating all sorts of amazing badness. Rebooting the game does not fix this. Resetting the sim does not fix it. (Despite forums saying it would.) The only way to fix it that I’ve found is to use Twallan’s GoHere mod –> at the City Hall menu, turn on teleport for everyone. Then take control of the sim and use “Teleport me here” to teleport them someplace.

Next time, I’ll break the no-user-control rule and just send everyone outside if I want to remodel. Or do it while the maximum number of sims are at work/school. Bah. I’m kind of cranky b/c that really was the most awesome lot for my family. Sadly, I think the moment has passed, plus I really do want to try the simple, EA-approved life for a while.

Finally, I figured out why half the kids had bizarrely colored eyebrows. Allison’s eyebrows are not set to match her hair color. They’re set separately to the same color, which affects the wonderfully unintuitive sim genetics. So all these black-haired sims were inheriting Allison’s blonde eyebrows. I edited all of them to set their eyebrow color to match their hair. If they want to dye ’em, I’ll let them do it when they’re adults :).

Branden has gotten really attached to Strawberry. Aren’t they sweet together?

Christof has started taking school seriously all of a sudden!

Deanne is serious about everything, even play.

Erin, on the other hand, immediately figured out how to have a good time.

I swear, she always knows when you’re looking at her.

And she always strikes a pose!

Hetal finally got to go back to work! She said she wanted to dress for success on her first day back.

I’m not sure that outfit says “success” exactly.

Still, she was really happy to get to drive to the courthouse in that car she made us buy.

I certainly hope that car will be the end of her spending spree.

I go in to work later than I used to, so I tried to have a balanced breakfast.

I didn’t go terribly well.

Then the babysitter got here.

With a look like that, he’s either a responsible young man or an axe murderer. For Erin’s sake, I hope it’s the former.

I got Erin ready in her playpen with a fresh diaper and fresh bottle.

That’s about as idiot-proof as I can make babysitting. Let’s home this boy doesn’t screw it up.

I mean, seriously, all he has to do is stand in the same room with her and do nothing, right?

The weird green lady was still in our front yard when I left for work.

Doesn’t she have someplace else she should go?

At least I got a really big, nifty fire to fight at work.

The homeowner has the most amazing taste in clothes I’ve ever seen.

Oh, and hey, Ms. Maldano! Funny running into her here!

While I was gone, I hear that my clan of angels was incredibly responsible!

Christof went home with a very rich friend of his.

Then ditched him for his dad? Big brother? Random other guy in the house?

It was as if this guy was the father he never had.

Two moms weren’t enough? Sniff!

I hope his new friend is good to him.

After a nice nap, he got up and rehearsed a speech for class.

The babysitter didn’t burn the house down, and when I got home, Erin was playing just where I left her. Isn’t she just a cutie-wootie little girly-whirly??

Then I picked her up, and she whispered baby talk in my ear. Awww.

When Branden go home, he freaked out over how messy things got.

Hetal didn’t mind, though. It just made more things for the kitties to play with.

Caitlyn took a page from Branden’s book and stayed out until dark.

But she did head home in time to go to bed, so I guess I shouldn’t be too strict.

Then we all went to bed on time.

Almost everyone.

And for one brief, shining moment, everyone was happy.

If we ended the story here, we could just say, “Happily Ever After,” huh?

———-

STILL no fails!

Beautiful Moments: 1 + 1 = 2

This episode was so horrifyingly responsible that we could almost forget we’re in an ISBI.

Except maybe the part where Christof’s friend had a deleted CC skin tone, and so he looked like a Grim Reaper kid.

Right when we least expected it, the kittens grew up!

Well, everyone but Caitlyn. She always paid attention to the kitties, and she was right there to cheer them on.

I was, um, out of the house at the time I think.

Four grown kittens. Cheshire and Dinah congratulated themselves on a job well done.

And here they are.

Peanut:

Raspberry:

Strawberry:

Plum:

And Cheshire got old! I think he looks so distinguished.

But I’m sure you want to see more pictures of my wonderful cats!

Dinah nuzzles Strawberry while Cheshire looks on with approval.

Raspberry plays with Dinah.

Plum pesters Strawberry.

Peanut loves on Strawberry.

Peanut looks soft and fluffy and adorable, and he knows it.

Peanut and Plum become one solid tangle of purple stripes!

Dinah grooms Peanut.

Peanut destroys the furniture (of course).

And they all dream kitty dreams.

———-

Well, it’s sort of a post. More importantly, it’s the poll for the heir to the second generation of the Wonderland cat legacy!

Here I was, waiting for the kitten’s birthday to turn up in my backlog of pictures, and it turned out I’d missed it! It was right before Branden’s birthday, actually.

So, which of Dinah and Cheshire’s four adorable progeny would you like to see pass their genes on?

Poll in sidebar as usual. If you can’t use it, comment with your vote!

I came home one night after a hard day putting out fires.

And this was what was waiting for me.

“Allison!” Hetal came running down the stairs. “Where are we going for my birthday?”

I just stopped and stared.

Hetal’s eyes narrowed. “You DID remember my birthday, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Of course I did,” I lied. “You have the best birthday present ever waiting for you.”

Hetal clapped her hands greedily. “What?”

“A new house!”

“You have to be kidding me.”

That wasn’t the kind of response I was expecting, but it was too late now.

I got the family together, and we said goodbye to our cramped little duplex. I was so glad to be getting out of this place.

I sent Hetal ahead with the kids, and I walked the kitties to their new home.

Kitties have a rough time with change. They just need a little bit of extra loving care at a time like this, you know?

Our new house was waiting for us.

Sure, it looked a little bit creepy, but it was nighttime. I would look a whole lot better in the morning.

While I was still walking to the new house, Hetal had her birthday.

Her mom was there to greet her to middle age, but I missed it. She was never going to let me live that down, new house or no new house.

The kids explored the new yard while they waited for me. Such a lot of space to run and play!

When I showed up, I brought a cake with me from the store so that we could at least have a little something to celebrate Hetal’s age up.

Hetal wasn’t terribly grateful. “I am not sitting here” she exclaimed. “This chair has something growing on it!”

“Then don’t,” I said.

So we all sat in the living room.

Hetal said that living in a dump like this was going to turn her to a life of crime.

“I’m going to fix it up,” I said. “It’s going to look amazing. You’ll see.”

Jin and Caitlyn knew better than to say anything, so they just ate their cake.

Branden, meanwhile, got really attached to Raspberry.

And we seemed to have mislaid Deanne.

Christof appreciated the dining table at least. He’s not scared off by a little bit of scuzz.

“I can’t believe I’m sleeping in this,” Hetal whimpered as we curled up together in the damp, creaky bed.

“We’ll be living in the lap of luxury,” I said. “You’ll see.

Jin and Deanne slept on the upstairs landing with a lot of old clutter.

And the kids got bunk beds! See! Just as good as at the old house.

And everything looked better the next morning.

Hetal and Jin went to explore the shed at the back of the property. They almost needed a machete to get there.

I headed to City Hall to receive another award for capturing gnomes, but something went very wrong.

Fortunately, when I got home, Hetal found my new look a real turn-on.

Not that I’m complaining.

At least the kitties liked the new place.

Caitlyn and Christof got used to it and played hide and seek in the waist-high brambles.

I put Deanne’s potty out in the dirt-floor garage.

At least it kept the stink away from the house.

And then it was Branden’s birthday!

We all cheered while he transformed….

…. into some kind of horrible, distorted monster.

Then the kids all climbed up through the floor.

To sleep in the air over my bedroom.

Even the monster-that-was-Branden.

And then I woke up.

“Allison? Allison? Are you ok?” Hetal was shaking me awake.

“Uh, what?” I mumbled.

“You were crying out in your sleep. Are you ok?”

I blinked. I was in our shabby, but comfortable, bed in our cramped but comfortable duplex. It had never looked so wonderful. “I think I just had a nightmare,” I said.

Hetal pulled me close. “Oh, baby!” she said. “Let me scare the monsters away,”

Whew.

Now that I had a chance to do this over, I was NOT going to forget her birthday.

———-

So here’s a little bit of retcon from the lot and the playtime I lost. Plus all the messed-up glitch shots I was able to take. I didn’t bother to track fails. Branden peed himself once, and that’s the only one I’m sure of.

Allison used a LLAMA to go to City Hall to collect an award, and she got the fail that turned her into a tragic clown for a day. It was pretty funny. She stumbled around everywhere, but I couldn’t catch it in a screenshot.

And it occurs to me that I never went back to get that award since I restored from save. The opportunity has been sitting at City Hall for about a sim-week. I need to go do that.

Spring was just starting to slink into Moonlight Falls, but there was still frost on the ground.

Some lady showed up with an umbrella on a cloudless day to hang out in our yard.

Apparently her idea of fun was cleaning up our old newspapers.

Don’t ask me. I didn’t hire her.

I, on the other hand, was up at the crack of dawn. The city wanted to throw some kind of ceremony to recognize my awesome heroism, but the only time I figured I could get away was when people were asleep.

Oh, I guess that lady with the umbrella knew what she was doing because now it was pour rain. I guess that’s Spring for you. I should have put on a raincoat.

I dashed into a nearby phone booth to get out of the rain.

And something very strange happened….

And I got out right across the street from city hall!

Phone booths — the only way to travel!

A bunch of people came to see me get a new award. At least, I’m sure they must have been here to see me.

This hot fellow is William’s older brother Anton Pierce. Mmmmm. Hot does seem to run in the family.

A young politician named Miyuki Mai presented me with my award. I guess they couldn’t book the actual mayor.

I guess umbrellas are another way to travel. I’ll have to try that out.

And after all that, all I got was a trophy!

I appreciate the thought and all, but folks? If you want to show me how much you appreciate my work for our fair city, do it with a really fat check. We’re sitting on cat-scratched folding chairs in an empty living room, but now I have a statuette.

While I was gone, Jin tried to cook again.

Sigh.

But at least her love life was looking promising again.

On the way home, I decided to spend the money I didn’t get as an award to pick up some birthday cakes. We got so busy we missed the last ones, and I wasn’t going to let that happen again.

Christof was first because Caitlin was sleeping.

Suddenly, Jin realized that she’d forgotten something.

It was the hot dogs she’d been cooking when the birthday party started. Whoops.

This could have been a serious problem in another house, but Allison Wonderland lives here. I knew just what to do. First, I set Christof down where he’d be safe.

And while I was doing that Hetal put out the fire.

By the time I got outside, the only thing left to do was clean up the soot.

I’m ok with this. I swear. I am a mature woman who does not feel threatened when her wife steals her thunder without even asking.

Hetal seemed pretty ticked off at her mom for starting that fire. I hope they’re going to be OK.

While we were out, Christof grew up.

And went to get the first slice of cake.

And where was Branden, anyway?

He never seems to come home from school anymore. Doesn’t he like us?

Next it was Caitlin’s turn. She was fresh up from her nap, so the timing was perfect. Caitlin’s such a sweet little girl. I’m sorry she’s going to be getting too big for me to hold her in my arms. I’m glad that she’s going to be too big to scream her head off all the time, though.

She didn’t think we needed a cake just for her, though, and decided to age up when she got downstairs.

All right, then. We had one more chance to get this whole birthday cake celebration right. This time I was going to make it happen no matter what!

I did have a bit of trouble getting Deanne out of her crib.

But she was all right.

The whole family — except Branden — gathered around to welcome our last (and I mean LAST) baby into toddlerhood.

Raspberry was just sinking into the rug with excitement.

My sweet little green girl!

Jin was ready to get to work.

I dashed over to give Deanne her first toddler tickle!

But Hetal discovered that her ice spell was more exhausting than she’d expected. This wouldn’t have happened if she’d just let me do my job, now would it? But of course I’m not bitter or anything.

While we were all finishing up the party, Branden showed up.

“Where have you been?” I exclaimed.

“I was just out,” he said, and he immediately headed up to bed.

I just don’t know about that boy.

Right after that, Caitlin turned red and dashed to the shower.

We had to rearrange things a bit for bedtime. We figured the best place for Deanne was in the garage with Jin. I mean, Hetal and I are the breadwinners, or Hetal will be too if she ever goes back to work. We really can’t deal with a kid waking us up at night.

But it worked out all right the first night. I mean, really really all right.

How’s that for getting it right?

———-

Fires in Home: 0 + 1
Passing out: 9 + 1 = 10
Self-peeing: 4 + 1 = 5
Minor Cheats: 1 + 1 = 2
Pet Social Worker Visits: 0 + 1 = 1

I think there should be bonus points awarded for getting 7 sims and 5/6 cats all to go to bed on time. Just saying’. I think I am going to record that under “Beautiful Moments.”

Beautiful Moments: 0 + 1 = 1

Now that I’m over the whole control freak thing, I am having a BLAST with this ISBI. People are always failing, but something funny is ALWAYS happening. I’m enjoying collecting all of the obscure fails.

Deanne is ADORABLE. She got of her her hair, skin, and eyes from Jin. However, I’m pretty sure she’s adorable because she’s a face clone of Allison. ARRRRRGH! She is Clumsy and Angler. Since I used MC to replace the baby, I didn’t get to pick traits.

Christof is an Athletic, Friendly Vegetarian I think. I tried to skill him up so I could choose his child trait, but I had a sort-of glitch at the end and didn’t finish his potty training. (It was really bad UI — it turns out that you can’t select potty training as an action if the kid is in the crib, and I thought that having no action meant his potty training was done.) I used a Change of Personality elixer on him, thinking I’d get to pick the changed trait, but no. That was Vegetarian. Christof is running the very real risk of making it to YA without being Insane.

Caitlin is a Good, Insane Cat Person. How appropriate!

I think those “phone booths” are LAAMAs? Or whatever the acronym is? I recall that Twallan said something about making them routing objects at some point. That’s the way Allison decided to go to City Hall to collect her award. You can’t see it very well, but it’s on their bed stand in the last shot.

However, I’m going to take credit for another minor cheat. I think it actually happened in the last chapter, but the social worker came for the cats because one of them was lonely, and I reloaded the game. I was NOT going to lose those cats, and besides that I’m not really planning on including them in anything point-related despite putting them on the scorecard.

The cats were always in the red or orange for social need. I wasn’t sure what to do. As an experiment, I used Twallan’s Retuner to remove React Negatively and React Neutrally from the pet autonomous action list. As far as I can tell, this action is for yowling at food that is left out, and since this is an ISBI, there’s ALWAYS food left out in various stages of decay. That action doesn’t fill any needs, but it seems to be something a pet will do instead of anything useful. Once I got rid of those actions, the cats started actually seeing to their own needs, and I haven’t had a problem since.

And I am caught up again!

Caitlin and Deanne were sleeping, but Christof was having none of it, so I ended up leaving him in his new walker while Hetal and I got some sleep.

The next morning, Jin got a call from Ayden. He told her he got married, but he hoped that wouldn’t hurt their relationship.

She told him to take his money and shove it, and then hung up. Jin is an amazing woman. Sure, she’s a hideous old maid trapped into providing free child care, but she has principles!

Jin tried to pretend she wasn’t bothered and went to cook some dinner.

But you could tell it was on her mind.

Then again, she might just be a really bad cook.

This was not my and Hetal’s best moment, but we were desperate!

Sometimes Hetal is the only part of life that keeps me going.


Afterward, I finally got to take some time with Dinah. It’s been so long since I got to play with my sweet kitties.

And Jin ate her own cooking, since nobody else would. And Cheshire scratched up our good folding chair.

OK, this place was a pit, and we only had burned hot dogs to eat. It was time for me to step up and whip us into shape. First I cooked some dinner.

It was pancakes, which is all I know how to make. Everyone will eat it and like it.

Actually, it wasn’t too bad if I do say so myself.

Then I cleaned up the cat puke that had been sitting in the floor for a week.

Then I told Branden to GO TO BED. And to my shock, he did!

Meanwhile, Ayden called Jin again. She told him to shove off.

And then she passed out. This thing with her man really has her off her game.

But Branden got a decent amount of sleep and did 11% of his homework in the morning before dashing off to meet the bus on time. I will have to remember to tell him to go to bed more often.

We didn’t get much sleep, and I had to dash off to work. Hetal stepped up to take care of the kids.

She’s come such a long way from the independent woman who wasn’t sure she wanted to have children. Now she’s a great mom, and she’s about to be fired from her job! What a turnaround.

She even managed to actually read Branden that bedtime story he’s been begging for.

Jin just wouldn’t let go of the hot dog thing until she produced some we could eat.

Kitties! (I don’t have a segue, but who needs one of those anyway?)

Cheshire and Strawberry.

Peanut, Cheshire, Raspberry, and Plum.

Dinah and Raspberry.

I have such a wonderful kitty family.

Actually, I’m posting all that sweetness to distract myself by how lousy the evening was.

OK, look, I worked all day with no break, and the kids wouldn’t let me sleep, OK??

And then there was a golden moment.

Everyone was sleeping so peacefully AT THE SAME TIME.

Well, 6 out of 7 ain’t bad.

———-

Passing out: 5 + 4 = 9.

Oh the fail, it makes you want to cry. But then there’s a baby and two toddlers. It’s pretty much what I expected.

That woohoo while Christof was in the room was totally autonomous, I swear!

While Branden was wandering around, refusing to sleep without a bedtime story, I noticed that Allison had a “Go to sleep” interaction with him. She used it, and he went to sleep! But I haven’t seen it since. I’m not sure what makes it show up.

Also, you should probably get an extra point deduction when the torch holder fails. :-p It’s pretty much what she said. She was moving from baby/toddler crisis to baby/toddler crisis that the idiots weren’t dealing with, and every time she tried to go to bed, a crying kid would wake her up. She actually went to work, and I think she even got promoted, but she couldn’t sleep THERE because there was an emergency and the fire truck was about to break down. I should’ve just left her at the fire house to get a little bit of sleep before throwing her back into the lion’s den.

Poor Allison. It will get better.

On the bright side, Hetal has a Faithful reputation, which is pretty amazing considering her LTW is Master Romancer. Allison must be doing something right.

Come ON, kids. Can’t you just get out of the way?

The background music in our house is the sound of screaming toddlers. Jin gets the worst of it, and one night it drove her outside to get some peace and quiet.

She got more than she bargained for.

But she didn’t miss much.

When she got back, they were still screaming.

But I guess you couldn’t blame her for passing out that time.

Hetal and I kinda didn’t notice she was gone. I have to say that Hetal is one hot pregnant lady.

Though we were both too exhausted to really do anything about it, so we went to bed.

We woke up to this strange noise. It was someone rustling through our stuff.

And she took our rocking chair!!

Hetal almost lost her mind. Not the rocking chair! She was going to have a baby, and now there wouldn’t be a rocking chair! The world was ending!

She was a little bit hormonal.

While I was frantically calling the police about the intruder, she went into another room and zapped up the towel by the sink. What will we do without a way to dry our hands? We’ll have wet hands, that’s what! Oh, the humanity!

And then it turned out she had a legal right to be there. It turns out we didn’t pay our bills. Whoops.

The next day, Ayden called Jin up for another date.

It was good for her to get out of the house, even if Ayden is kind of boring.

She found a great way to have fun.

Then she told Ayden she had to go home early because she was exhausted.

And she made it all the way to her own bed and slept there! Without passing out! Jin is just made of steel.

The house was filled with kitties. Which is a wonderful thing, but it was a lot of little mouths to feed.

Don’t think that’s complaining, though, because it is totally not. Complaining. I mean, how can you complain about this?

Or this??

And then sweet Peanut had a birthday!

Isn’t he magnificent?

Branden left for his first day of school! Well, really his second day, but it was the first day he actually showed up.

He’s such a responsible little man.

I had the day off, so I tried to focus on one of the least fun parts of being a mom. I swear, I did everything I could to get Christof to do something on that potty.

But nothing! It’s enough to make you crazy!

Finally, I got the twins someplace where they could have some fun in a way that would *not involve us*.

And they did have a good time. Faces like this are why I don’t just run off and join the circus.

Look at them play together! They’re both going to be geniuses. I’m sure of it.

Hetal and I had other plans.

The last couple of times we’d tried to woohoo, something had come up. But this time for sure. The toddlers were playing in their room. Branden was at school. Jin was asleep. What could go wrong?

But when we got to the top of the stairs, Hetal stopped. “Wait,” she said. “I think can feel the baby!”

“Right, right,” I said. “I’m sure you can feel the baby. Can we get to the bedroom?”

“No,” she said. “I mean I can feel the baby coming! Right now!”

I guess this means no woohoo for a while.

I figured now was a pretty good time to celebrate my birthday. I mean, I wasn’t going to get my birthday present, but at least I’d get another kid out of it, right?

Branden came upstairs to watch.

All this parenting stress and no woohoo is really bad for your hair.

Well gathered in the hallway to gawp at Hetal giving birth. It looked really painful. Wow, I’m glad it wasn’t me.

But it took too long, so we all got tired and went to bed.

But at last our fourth (and FINAL!) child was born.

Wait, don’t pay attention to that. You might have *thought* you saw a pale-skinned boy, but you really saw a teal-skinned girl.

This is Deanne.

Hetal laid her in her crib.

The twins were so busy playing peekaboo, they didn’t even notice.

Hetal relaxed after the stresses of childbirth with Dinah. I approve.

So you’re the new baby, huh?

Wow, you’re so sweet.

Anyone who tells this beautiful little girl what I said about her before she was born will see their house burn down. Think I’m bluffing? Don’t try me.

———-

Pregnancies: 2 + 1 = 3
Total Babies: 3 + 1 = 4

Passing out: 4 + 1 = 5
Repo visits: 0 + 1 = 1

Cheats: 0 + 1 = 1

So, my first ever repo visit!

The backstory here is that the mailbox glitched out. This lot had one of the Late Night high-rise mailboxes out front in its own little shelter. I’ve lived in places that did it that way, and I liked it. But I think around the time of the University patch, it stopped working. I’m not entirely sure. I tried all sorts of things — resetting it, moving it around, etc. The news of the bills came up, and even though Allison couldn’t get the bill from the mailbox, the late bill warning dropped it into her inventory for me. So I instructed her to pay it by clicking the bill in her inventory. It dropped out of her queue, and I did it again. And I then I thought it succeeded and all was well.

So I spent the last of their savings on those two strollers to go to the park. And that morning the repo-lady showed up.

Also, I cheated. The first kid born was a boy with Allison’s skin tone and Hetal’s hair and eyes AGAIN. After much grumbling, I used MasterController to create a new baby. This is not a particularly game-changing cheat, and I’m not sure I’m willing to take a point hit for it. (Because this is totally about the points, right? I haven’t even decided how/if I’m going to score the scoresheet.) But I’m going to record them.

Hetal tried about four times to woohoo with Allison, and they couldn’t make it to their bed. With that and the mailbox thing, plus a whole sequence from the pic at the beginning where Hetal and Christof got into a face off at the head of the stairs and neither of them could route anywhere until I reset Hetal, had me ready to dump the condo and move. But I discovered that the door was “in use” by Branden, despite the fact that Branden was in bed downstairs. I had to delete and replace the door to fix that, and while I was at it, I enlarged the landing a bit at the expense of Hetal and Allison’s bedroom. That, and deleting the mailbox and letting the game replace it with a standard one, and the lot is functioning again.

I’ve become kind of stupidly attached to this condo. But also, the Wonderlands have been living hand-to-mouth, and I’m not sure they can afford one much better.

“Another child is wonderful!” I told Hetal. “We can totally handle it.”

What I was actually thinking was, “We’re dead.”

But Hetal is awesome. She got up early to deal with kids.

And she made breakfast.

All while she must have been feeling terrible from morning sickness. I know. I remember what it was like.

After Branden and I finished her wonderful home-cooked meal, Branden did the dishes.

Meanwhile, our neighbor Oberon was out in the snow, playing with Peanut.

He left his front door unlocked, and Dinah wandered into his entry hall.

She lay down, sweet as can be.

And them she started howling like the end of the world was here!! Good heavens!

We all rushed out to see what was wrong, and then poof! There were kittens!

THREE KITTENS! GOOD GRIEF!

Meet Strawberry (female)

Raspberry (male)

and Plum (male)

OK, when I named the all the kittens, I was having a huge craving for peanut butter and jelly, OK?

The kittens were all really sweet the way they cuddled up to their mommy.

Hetal was the first one in to meet them.

And Strawberry started chasing her tail. So cute!!

Peanut went to meet his new younger brothers and sisters.

Now, I have to say that there are NEVER too many cats, but this is a lot of mouths to feed.

And just that much more poop to clean….

I threw myself into trying to get the house ready. There were toilets to fix.

And toddlers to feed. So many toddlers to feed.

This was really starting to get to me. I told Hetal, “We have GOT to have some fun or we’re going to go crazy.” Because we’re totally not already crazy. Plus, it was almost my birthday.

So I called a family meeting and declared that we were all going to go out and HAVE FUN. OR ELSE.

We got all the kids together.

And piled into a cab.

And showed up at the winter festival after dark. In the snow.

OK, this wasn’t my best job of planning, but I’m doing my best, OK?

I left Caitlin to play in the snow.

And tried out some snowboarding! It was amazing! I was born to do this.

Whoops!

OK, that hurt.

But I still can’t wait to do that again.

Then I decided we were all going to have a family picture. There were a bunch of creepy, drooly, grunting people who wanted to cut in line in front of us, but I am a firefighter, and I just don’t put up with that kind of stuff.

[I managed to not actually get a screenshot of the picture, which took at least three tries. It’s up on my Exchange page. I’ll try to get a shot of the game copy.)

Then it was time to go home. But there seemed to be some kind of a problem.

What? These drooly people with skin problems just don’t understand anything about personal space!

“Do you MIND?” I said in my firmest outraged hero voice. She finally stepped aside to let us pass.

And we walked all the way home in the snow. It was kind of nice. Winter is beautiful. If only it weren’t so cold.

—–

HOLY CRAP! THREE MORE KITTENS! I was lulled into thinking that pregnancies usually generated one or two kittens. So now the house has six pets and is about to have seven humans. In a duplex home on half of a 30×30 lot. On the plus side, nobody is a clone. It looks like we have interesting different body types and coloring patterns for each one. But I think everyone may have gotten Cheshire’s eyes, which is not fair because Dinah’s are gorgeous.

I was totally intending to post through to the birth of the kid, but when I got out all the pictures, I was astounded at how much happened. So baby will be born in the next post. And there will be more fail. Oh, so much more fail.

So I can just take this moment to pretend everything is all right because there is no fail in this post.

Jin’s phone rang at stupid o’clock in the morning. It was her ex-boyfriend Ayden Van Gould, begging her to take him back.

She dropped everything to go out to see him.

He wanted to meet behind the theater where nobody could see them. Apparently, he’d just dumped some psycho named Echo Weaver, and she was stalking him. He didn’t want her to be able to find them.

He told Jin that he missed her smile every morning.

And that she was the world to him. Or at least some world with pink swirls on it. She wasn’t impressed.

But then he got on to the naughty talk, and Jin appreciated that more. I guess the old flame was still burning after all.

Meanwhile, without Jin around, who do you think was stuck doing all the child care?

And WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO OUR TABLE?

Here’s another view. Definitely no table.

I tried to get ready for work, and I had to sit in the bathroom. Branden came in to tell me that the toilet was busted.

Then he sat down to have some breakfast.

That’s right. Well all hung out and had breakfast in a broken, smelly bathroom because there was NOPLACE ELSE TO SIT.

There has to be more to life than this.

“You know,” Hetal said, “After that kind of crummy morning, I just don’t feel like going to work.” So she didn’t.

And Branden didn’t go to school either. I really wanted to yell at him, but then he did the dishes. He was sacrificing his educational future to clean up this pit of a house. He’s such a good boy.

Then he sat down and did his homework, which he couldn’t possibly have collected because he didn’t go to school.

I have such a magical, witchy son.

I decided to stay home too, since everyone else was doing it. Instead, I went outside to play with the kitties. But I couldn’t find them!

Wait, what’s that?

It’s Peanut!

Meanwhile, Hetal was getting overwhelmed trying to deal with Christof and Caitlin. And who was this chick in the room anyway? Why doesn’t she give a kid a bottle?

Those kids pretty much never stopped screaming. It made me crazy!

The whole neighborhood probably could hear them.

OK, the kid is clothed and fed. I don’t want to hear about it, OK?

At last Jin got back from her hot date and started setting things in order.

Clearly we are totally lost without her.
.

While Jin was doing some cleaning downstairs, we finally got both of the toddlers contained. I suggested Hetal might like to go on a horsey ride.

If you know what I mean.

Ride’m cowgirl.

Then work called after all, and I had to dash in to do some repairs on the fire engine! I can’t even take a mental health day in peace! A hero’s work is never done.

And while I was there, the emergency alarm went off! So I had to jump into the half-repaired clunky fire engine to save the day.

It was a family freaking out because…. their gnomes were swearing at them??

You have GOT to be kidding me. I got out of bed for this?

Fortunately, it was an easy job.

And VERY satisfying, since I got a bonus for the job AND a promotion with another bonus! Man, we could really use that money.

And it was quitting time, so I sneaked in to play with their toys.

While I was gone, Hetal broke the other toilet.

And she promised to tell Branden a bedtime story. But then she forgot where the bedtime books were.

Plus, she wasn’t feeling very well.

Branden didn’t want to go to bed without his story, so he came downstairs for a drink.

But then he was too tired to really drink it, so he left it on the floor.

Then he walked all the way out into the living room, past his bed, so that he could pass out on the floor. That’s where I found him.

While I was getting everyone to bed, Jin picked up Branden’s discarded juice box.

And sat down to finish it off at the new table I was able to buy with my bonus money.

When I came upstairs, Hetal was in the bathroom staring at herself in the mirror.

“Come to bed, baby!” I told her. “We both know you’re hot.”

“Actually,” Hetal said. “I think I’m pregnant. And do you know you stink?”

ANOTHER BABY? How are we going to manage?

Cheshire has the right idea. I need to start playing with my kids and not stress out so much.

———-

Passing out: 0 + 2 = 2

The fails is just fast and furious now, and with another kid coming I can only imagine it will get worse.

I have no memory of what happened to the table. Two options: 1, I removed a lot of custom content that had accidentally made it into my game, and it’s possible the table was just deleted. The game is SUPPOSED to replace it with something else, but perhaps that’s only if the family can pay the difference in price or something. 2, I sold it to pay the bills and then forgot about it. I intentionally made it a little harder for the Wonderlands to get ahead financially, but I don’t think I realized just HOW hard it would be for them anyway with only one person under my control.

The house is totally out of control at this point. Hetal isn’t going to work and has gotten a warning that she might be fired from her job. Branden spent all night wandering from person to person, asking for a bedtime story and then having the action cancelled before it could complete.

I think the apartment is getting glitchy. It’s getting harder and harder for Allison and Hetal to actually get to their beds to sleep.

I’m creating a new rule while I test out bedtime story mods — if any child has a successful bedtime story interaction fail out twice, I’m sending him to bed manually. The Read to Sleep action keeps canceling out of Branden or his victim’s queue, and he just wanders around asking for that story until he passes out.

With the fourth kid on the way, I am getting really concerned about losing the whole generation to the Social Worker.

At least it’s funny as heck, which is the point.